Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Dog Confiscations

Everybody, at least in Holland, knows that the Germans confiscated nearly all bicycles during WWII and transported them to Germany. Until quite recently, when a Dutchman wanted to express he was still angry because of the occupation, he would say 'Give back my bike!'.

But the Germans snitched more than just bikes, also dogs were taken of their owners. The dogs were used for the clearing of mine fields. Every dog owner had to report, but only the large dogs were confiscated, since the mines needed a certain amount of pressure to detonate.

This photo was secretly made by amateur photographer Karel Bönnekamp, a member of the resistance. He made pictures of the shady businesses of the Germans. When I first saw this picture I was shocked, it was the first time I heard about this. It is another example of the hard times the previous generations experienced during the war.

Very interesting piece of news indeed.---Thank You very much, Rob, for Your comments in my blog. I have appreciated them a lot.I wanted to inform You that Your site is now proudly linked from the home page of my blog about borders (left sidebar; the order of the list depends on the most recent update).All good wishes and congratulations.

I’d never herd this before, but I am not shocked or surprised, knowing how human beings were treated, dogs would be very much more disposable. It’s a sad picture though and clearly the photographer was taking a great risk.

That must have been very upsetting (to say the least) to the owners. I had never heard of the bicycles being taken or the dogs. I guess they were lucky they didn't decide to use people to check for mines.

A very good Dutch friend of mine gave me a family postcard collection dating from around the war years. I've learnt a lot of what went on during the occupation but I didn't know about the dogs. How dreadful.

A small piece of history that explains far more about the German occupation. It is sobering to imagine a photographer risking his life to take this photo. How could the Germans find time to organize such a dog pogrom?